Tpl - Api & Digital Services

End Date
Wednesday 14 February 2024
We support agile working - click here for more information on agile working options.
Agile Working Options
Hybrid Working
Job Description
At Lloyds Banking Group, we are driven by a clear purpose, to Help Britain Prosper. The world is changing, and we’re changing too. It’s never been a more exciting time to join us as we transform our business to enable technology and shape finance as a force for good.
We are looking for a Technical Platform Lead to work very closely with the Business Platform lead for the newly formed API & Digital Services Platform. This is an exciting and challenging opportunity to be right at the heart of the transformation journey across the Group.
The API & Digital Services Platform
The API & Digital Services Platform will deliver the capabilities, processes and standards to enable other Platforms across the Group to independently build and exploit LBG compliant APIs. The Platform will deliver core products including API development as a Service, allowing teams to design, secure, validate and test APIs whilst aligning to the Group standards, provision of Foundational Digital capabilities that provide efficiency through API re-use and simplification, and an API Marketplace as a Service to allow Platforms to publish and discover APIs on a self-serve basis through the LBG strategic gateways.
The purpose of a Platform Leader (TPL or BPL):
Platform leader roles work closely together with joint accountability for their platform.
The roles ensure that capability in the teams (short, medium and long term) enables the building and running of a world class product and engineering organisation with a deep focus on service.
Through the teams, they jointly assume ownership, development and accountability of the Platform strategic and quarterly OKRs and for management and prioritisation of the Platform backlog. Accountability within the platform roles aligns to the following core themes:

• Financial - ensuring that costs are well controlled and that budgets are met. Constantly look for ways to improve cost effectiveness.
• Delivery - achieving outcomes as described in OKRs via effective agile delivery, factoring in resilience, regulatory and strategic commitments for both run and change. Oversight and align team and platform roadmaps and backlogs in pursuit of these goals.
• Service & Resilience - ensure that service is running, secure and resilient. This incudes horizon scanning and planning for future challenges.
• People - develop capability for the short, medium and long term, enabling performance effectively and to high expectations and driving a focus on culture and behaviours within and around agile deployment. Empower the teams to self-manage, be creative and innovative and have the freedom to find the appropriate solution within the frameworks provided. Look ahead to ensure that the skills needed to run the Platform are either recruited or developed.
• Risk - ensuring the requirements of all risk regimes impacting the platform are factored into planning, and that key strategic risks are actively handled, funded and mitigated.

In this dual accountability model, the Business Platform lead is accountable for backlog prioritisation and the Technical Platform lead is responsible for solution delivery.
Platform Leader Accountabilities:

• Ensure that the capabilities in the team are what is needed for the future; articulate the skill-based vision of the future and the steps to get there, utilising and influencing Groupwide frameworks, learning opportunities, early careers programmes and cost models to build a world class product and engineering organisation.
• Create a vision of a new future that brings significant change and improvements to how we serve our customers. Do this by providing a roadmap for Platform activities that demonstrate (measurable) value and champion quality technical delivery using the portfolio of investment. Hold the team to account to ensure that the Platform vision and initiatives balance the short and long term and have alignment from team to lab to platform and through the OKRs to Group strategy with a strong commercial basis.
• Build strong, trusting and deep relationships to enable close and productive work with stakeholders across the Group and with suppliers. This will include supporting the team to resolve issues and challenges robustly and positively, ensuring core governance requirements are met and considering and championing opportunities to work differently in support of Group strategic aims
• Role model Group Values and expectations with and through the team, working to develop a strong leadership team and holding them to account for clear individual objectives. Operate as a talent magnet, developing potential and challenging performance at all levels. Drive energy and time to learning and continuous improvement and inspire people through authentic and visible leadership.
• Empower the teams to ensure that the right problems get focus and the outcomes drive great benefits. Drive effective working through the use of the Group’s agile methodology, supporting stakeholders to understand how to interact with the teams effectively in this model and ensuring the use of strategic systems (i.e. Jira) to govern and report the work through and with the teams.
• Ensure that safety and resilience of product is a priority through the backlogs and in the work.
• Ensure that all decisions are made in alignment with frameworks and within Group standards as articulated in the approved change delivery methods and the Group Security and Technology policies. Consider end to end economics and build compelling business cases for both run and change capabilities.
• Provide exceptional leadership to the team, coaching and developing through change with a focus on empowerment.
• Demonstrate and role model financial accountability and efficient management of all Group resources.

Skills, knowledge and Experience of Platform Leader roles

• Skilled and effective at building capability at an individual and team level. Managing reskilling, upskilling and planning future demand/ recruitment/ early careers usage in a way that makes best use of available budgets and balances the future need with the immediate need.
• Significant experience of leading and empowering teams using agile development methods and tooling within a DevOps environment. Able to inspire and engage at all levels through a focus on a non-hierarchical culture of collaboration, transparency and trust across the team. Demonstrate thought leadership on contemporary technical delivery across the entire lifecycle from ideal to realisation of value, using sophisticated problem solving to push the solutions and remove the blockers.
• Experienced collaborator. Confirmed ability to influence multiple internal and external relationships (suppliers, regulators etc) to ensure progression of key business decisions. Adept communication skills to communicate complex messages and tell a compelling story - using these skills to anticipate challenge to resolve complex issues and conflicting requirements. Deep knowledge of the competitor landscape, customer behaviour and emerging products and technologies that is used to assess and improve impact for exceptional user and customer experience. Skilled in developing and maintaining customer journey improvements.
• Understanding and knowledge of frameworks. Identify, monitor and mitigate commercial and customer risks in alignment with the requirement of the regulatory environment. Deliver cost and income targets in alignment with broader risk and capital/funding requirements. Experience of driving a focus on all risk, governance, conduct and control requirements and of using the context of these in decision making around technology.
• Detailed knowledge of the relevant sector of the UK financial services market or customer/product group with an excellent understanding of the key drivers, issues and constraints of customer journeys.
• Providing a data focused approach, using analytics and insight to make evidence based decisions that explain the ‘why’.
• Strong commercial competence and the ability to effectively assess choices to achieve the best outcomes for Customers.

Technology Platform Leader skills, knowledge & Experience:
Additionally, the Technology Platform lead is responsible for the ‘How’.

• Skilled at building a world class engineering team.
• Extensive experience and technical modern engineering knowledge from implementation of a broad range of platforms.
• Able to adapt approach in pursuit of the best solution - has a knowledge base of multiple engineering and software design solutions, devops, data, automation, hosting choices.
• Strong and demonstrable experience of managing technical service and security.
• Well versed in technical architecture principles and deep experience of systems architecture and integration (incl with third parties) and skilled at ensuring we Evergreen modern technology.
• Skilled at data driven decision making in order to explain the ‘why’ to a variety of audiences (including less technical audiences).
• Detailed knowledge of software design, build and release via DevOps principles and practices.

About working for us
Our focus is to ensure we're inclusive every day, building an organisation that reflects modern society and celebrates diversity in all its forms.
We want our people to feel that they belong and can be their best, regardless of background, identity or culture.
We were one of the first major organisations to set goals on diversity in senior roles, create a menopause health package, and a dedicated Working with Cancer initiative.
And it’s why we especially welcome applications from under-represented groups.
We’re disability confident. So if you’d like reasonable adjustments to be made to our recruitment processes, just let us know.
We also offer a wide-ranging benefits package, which includes:

• A generous pension contribution of up to 15%
• An annual bonus award, subject to Group performance
• Share schemes including free shares
• Benefits you can adapt to your lifestyle, such as discounted shopping
• 30 days’ holiday, with bank holidays on top
• A range of wellbeing initiatives and generous parental leave policies

This is a once in a career opportunity to help shape your future as well as ours. Join us and grow with purpose.
At Lloyds Banking Group, we're driven by a clear purpose; to help Britain prosper. Across the Group, our colleagues are focused on making a difference to customers, businesses and communities. With us you'll have a key role to play in shaping the financial services of the future, whilst the scale and reach of our Group means you'll have many opportunities to learn, grow and develop.
We keep your data safe. So, we'll only ever ask you to provide confidential or sensitive information once you have formally been invited along to an interview or accepted a verbal offer to join us which is when we run our background checks. We'll always explain what we need and why, with any request coming from a trusted Lloyds Banking Group person.
We're focused on creating a values-led culture and are committed to building a workforce which reflects the diversity of the customers and communities we serve. Together we’re building a truly inclusive workplace where all of our colleagues have the opportunity to make a real difference.